


say goodbye (it's independence day)

by Origamidragons



Series: princesses and pirate girls [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Headcanon, Pre-Canon, Responsibility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23882671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Origamidragons/pseuds/Origamidragons
Summary: “And you’re sure you’re going to be okay on your own, Makino?”“I’m sure,” Makino said with a smile that was only a little worn around the edges. “Thank you, mayor, but I can take care of myself, I promise.”
Series: princesses and pirate girls [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1721038
Comments: 5
Kudos: 58
Collections: Women! Wanted Zine: Flash Fics





	say goodbye (it's independence day)

_“And you’re sure you’re going to be okay on your own, Makino?”_

_“I’m sure,” Makino said with a smile that was only a little worn around the edges. “Thank you, mayor, but I can take care of myself, I promise.”_

She closed the door, and sighed, leaning back against it and surveying the empty space. It had been closed for the past week, and the chairs were stacked on top of the tables, the bar coated with a thin layer of dust.

The bar was very quiet, and very empty, and all at once far too big. She buried her face in her hands and breathed in deep to try and keep from crying. The air tasted like sawdust and old wine, and it helped, a little, the familiar scent she’d grown up with all her life. 

She’d already cried enough, in the days leading up to the funeral. She was sick of tears, but she couldn’t stop them from welling up as the quiet of the bar resounded all around her. She half-slid, half-collapsed down to sit on the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest and taking deep, shuddering breaths as the enormity of it hit her all at once. 

She was only seventeen, alone with a child to look after and a business to run. 

For her whole life, Makino’s mother had run Party’s Bar with a kind of indomitable stubbornness, building it into a small but thriving business with what seemed like sheer force of will. She’d always been bright, and brilliant, and loud enough to shout down even the noisiest drunks.

It seemed silly, for her to just be _gone_. 

She didn’t know if she could do this. She’d been helping her mother in the bar ever since she could walk, she knew everything she needed to know to run it, but it felt like an impossibly far leap from trailing at her mother’s heels to doing it all herself. The responsibility felt like a physical weight, shoving down on her shoulders. It was all so _much_.

But- 

But she couldn’t fall to pieces. She wouldn’t. She refused. She would pick herself back up, and do whatever needed doing, and make her mother proud. 

For her mother, and for herself, and for-

“Makino?” a little voice asked, uncharacteristically uncertain, and she looked up. Luffy was perched on the stairs, looking at her with big dark eyes. “’m hungry.” 

She couldn’t help but smile, soft and fond. She picked herself up, wiping at her eyes with a hand, and nodded. 

“Of course, Luffy,” she said, and all of a sudden everything didn’t seem quite so big and quiet and lonely. “Let’s go make something to eat.”

**Author's Note:**

> i started thinking about how makino is only nineteen in the prologue even though she seems to run the bar by herself and it seems to be a pretty well-established business, and then this happened
> 
> title is from 'independence day' by bruce springsteen
> 
> Prompt: Independence  
> Character: Makino  
> Word Limit: 500  
> Word Count: 451


End file.
